DANĚK, Petr and Petr JEHLIČKA. Beyond coping strategy: Central European informal food economies as future-oriented and transformation-enabling practices. In International workshop From Economic to Political Informality: Exploring the Link between Shadow Practices, Policy Making and Development. 2019.
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Basic information
Original name Beyond coping strategy: Central European informal food economies as future-oriented and transformation-enabling practices
Authors DANĚK, Petr (203 Czech Republic, guarantor, belonging to the institution) and Petr JEHLIČKA (203 Czech Republic, belonging to the institution).
Edition International workshop From Economic to Political Informality: Exploring the Link between Shadow Practices, Policy Making and Development, 2019.
Other information
Original language English
Type of outcome Presentations at conferences
Field of Study 50704 Environmental sciences
Country of publisher Sweden
Confidentiality degree is not subject to a state or trade secret
WWW URL
RIV identification code RIV/00216224:14310/19:00107698
Organization unit Faculty of Science
Keywords (in Czech) Samozásobitelství; rezilience; tichá udržitelnost; střední Evropa
Keywords in English Food self-provisioning; resilience; quiet sustainability; Central Europe
Tags International impact
Changed by Changed by: RNDr. Petr Daněk, Ph.D., učo 849. Changed: 4/10/2019 16:01.
Abstract
Household food self-provisioning and sharing in Central and Eastern Europe has long been considered as either remnant of socialist past or a survival strategy of the poor. In either case it was deemed to be an expression of passive resilience on the margins, to be incorporated into or replaced by the capitalist market production. We present an alternative interpretation of informal, non-market, household food self-provisioning (FSP), reading it as a set of practices unconsciously undermining the assumptions and questioning the values of neoliberal capitalism, and, at the same time, offering significant contribution to overcoming major economic, social and environmental problems of market food production. Drawing on a large-scale survey (2058 households), four focus groups and interviews with active gardeners conducted in the Czech Republic, in this paper we address FSP from three perspectives. First, from the economic perspective, FSP is presented as a widespread social practice (38 per cent of Czech households are engaged directly as producers of food, and further 33 per cent of households indirectly as recipients of food grown in gardens of others) which account for two fifths of fruits and vegetables consumption in households practising FSP. Second, from the social perspective, we highlight knowledge and skills related to FSP, its inclusive nature (households from different social classes participating equally) and its contribution to establishing and strengthening social relations within the networks based on sharing home-grown food. Third, from the environmental perspective, we interpret FSP as quiet sustainability, where households, following their individual and collective objectives of growing fresh, healthy food and sharing it with friends and relatives, contribute - mostly unreflectively, but significantly - to environmental sustainability by enhancing biodiversity, avoiding chemical fertilisers and pesticides and by relocalisation. The research shows that FSP is sustained by largely positive motivations and can be viewed as a form of resilience which is proactive, preventative, future-oriented and transformation-enabling.
Links
GA19-10694S, research and development projectName: Prostory tiché udržitelnosti: samozásobitelství a sdílení
Investor: Czech Science Foundation
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